Roku adds gaming to streaming media with sub-$100 Roku 2

Roku has updated its line of streaming media players with sub-Apple TV size …

Roku announced a new line of compact streaming video players on Wednesday, dubbed Roku 2. Aimed squarely at competing with the second-generation Apple TV, the new Roku 2 is smaller, lighter, uses less power, and, unlike the Apple TV, can play Angry Birds.

Apple announced the Apple TV 2 at the beginning of September last year. The Lilliputian device was essentially a fourth-generation iPod touch packed in a tiny case with a power supply. It runs iOS, and offers an optimized 10-foot interface. Because of its iOS-underpinnings, it was speculated that Apple would allow developers to build and sell apps for the device, including popular casual games. However, Apple has yet to offer developers an SDK to build apps for the big (flat) screen.

Roku followed up three weeks later with a line of three new players that cut the size down considerably, though still not as small as the Apple TV. This new line ditched standard definition resolution, offering 720p at the low-end, but essentially offered the same features as the older Roku hardware they replaced.

The Roku 2 is smaller than the already-tiny Apple TV 2.

Roku

But Roku didn't rest on its laurels for very long. The new Roku 2 is 3.3 inches by 3.3 inches by 0.9 inches thick (9.8 cu. in.) versus Apple TV's 3.9 inches by 3.9 inches by 0.9 inches thick (13.7 cu. in.), and weighs just 3 ounces—less than a third of the Apple TV's 9.6 ounces. The tiny device consumes as little as 2 watts when streaming HD content, compared to the Apple TV's 6 watts.

Roku also offers a wider variety of content. Apple TV can stream content from iTunes, Netflix, and YouTube, and can access subscriptions for streaming MLB and NBA games. Roku has, among its 300 channels, Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand, Hulu Plus, Crackle, YouTube, and more. It also streams music from Pandora, Last.fm, Rdio, and others, and you can buy subscriptions for NBA, MLB, NHL, and UFC sports coverage.

The new Roku "enhanced remote" with motion sensor.

Roku

Topping that, Roku 2 is now a gaming platform. All three updated devices now include Bluetooth for connecting to a motion sensor-equipped, $30 enhanced remote for a Wii-esque "casual gaming" experience. Roku worked directly with Rovio to bring on Angry Birds as a launch title, and that's currently the only game being highlighted. However, Roku said that more games are coming soon.

Roku 2, like its predecessors, comes in three different models. All three are equipped with 802.11n WiFi, HDMI and composite output, a microSD slot for storing game and channel data, and Bluetooth 3.0 for connecting to the game controller remote. The HD costs $59.99 and is limited to 720p resolution. The XD costs $79.99 and boosts resolution to a full 1080p. The XS, for $99.99, adds a wired Ethernet port, USB port to playback video, music, and photos from a storage device, a game controller remote, and a free copy of Angry Birds.

The new family of Roku 2 devices. From left to right: The $60 HD, $80 XD, and deluxe $100 XS.

Roku

Users of the lower-end models can add an enhanced gaming remote, bundled with a 2GB microSD card, for $29.99. It looks as though a single Roku device may be able support up to two game controllers simultaneously for head-to-head gaming (though Roku didn't respond to our request for more information). Either way, the $100 Roku 2 XS seems like the better value if you're interested in playing some games on a second TV or don't already have a Wii or other console.

For a company that is trying to lead in digital content access, Apple is really falling behind in the living room. I have an Apple TV 2 in our family room and it works great. It's silent, fairly cool and for the content it has, works well.

But that's the problem. There is a very limited selection of channels. When I was looking for a solution for our bedroom, I first thought I was going to get another Apple TV. When I decided I would also want a DVD/blue ray player, I found most had internet access too. My new Sony Blue Ray player streams many more channels than the Apple TV. The one big loss? The Apple TV is the only device that can directly stream from iTunes. There are some other devices that can stream the non-DRM stuff from itunes if you run a server but I haven't found them to always work smooth.

Apple has a big opportunity to leverage the iOS platform but announcements like this one from Roku tells me they are at least 6-12 months behind the competition in this area. That's bad news for Apple because they can usually command a higher price by leading. I hope the next iOS for Apple TV kicks it up a notch.

I haven't really been following Roku very closely. At $60 why wouldn't I want to get this? Is there a monthly fee?

The Roku is appletv done right. It's just a brilliant little box that connects your tv to the internet. Roku is $60 then you pay for the 'channels' - sometimes. Crackle, Crunchyroll and Pandora are free iirc. I have netflix, pandora, amazon videos (get content before netflix) and a local streaming mp3 app and we use ours all the time, my little boy confuses netflix/roku and doesn't understand why there are commercials on regular tv and why we can't pause, rewind etc. (we don't have a cable box, can't stand cable tv ethically or their horrid pos boxes).

Get one, trust me, it's easier, cheaper and more flexible than all the other alternatives. I'm about to get my second one, between the motion sensing, the extra storage and the higher resolution (I have a 720p one from 2 years ago). Roku is focused, they have a plan and people will want an alternative to appletv. Googtv is too expensive and really has a different purpose. Every content provider (even games) is moving to a streaming model, so these boxes will only get more useful.

I want a set top box for streaming content. MY content. NOT internet content, but stuff I store locally. My internet connection sucks...and I'm in canada where there the online content sucks. Why do all these boxes ignore the local, stored on MY hard drive, content?

I want a set top box for streaming content. MY content. NOT internet content, but stuff I store locally. My internet connection sucks...and I'm in canada where there the online content sucks. Why do all these boxes ignore the local, stored on MY hard drive, content?

I want a set top box for streaming content. MY content. NOT internet content, but stuff I store locally. My internet connection sucks...and I'm in canada where there the online content sucks. Why do all these boxes ignore the local, stored on MY hard drive, content?

Because there's wd, dlnk, xbox and appletv? Or an actual computer? Am I missing something?

I want a set top box for streaming content. MY content. NOT internet content, but stuff I store locally. My internet connection sucks...and I'm in canada where there the online content sucks. Why do all these boxes ignore the local, stored on MY hard drive, content?

Set up an HTPC, there's plenty of how-tos and boxes pre-made for it.

Show me how to build a HTPC for $60.

Quote:

Because there's wd, dlnk, xbox and appletv? Or an actual computer? Am I missing something?

I want a set top box for streaming content. MY content. NOT internet content, but stuff I store locally. My internet connection sucks...and I'm in canada where there the online content sucks. Why do all these boxes ignore the local, stored on MY hard drive, content?

Set up an HTPC, there's plenty of how-tos and boxes pre-made for it.

Show me how to build a HTPC for $60.

Show me a $60 device that streams music from your home network and sources on the internet.

I want a set top box for streaming content. MY content. NOT internet content, but stuff I store locally. My internet connection sucks...and I'm in canada where there the online content sucks. Why do all these boxes ignore the local, stored on MY hard drive, content?

Set up an HTPC, there's plenty of how-tos and boxes pre-made for it.

Show me how to build a HTPC for $60.

Show me a $60 device that streams music from your home network and sources on the internet.

Something about cake and eating it too.

That is my point, this is a $60 device that streams media from the internet. It obviously is capable of playing media at that price, but is artificially limited to not stream from MY network. There would be no additional hardware required to add that feature, but it is conspicuously absent since this is an "internet" device. Why can't it just be a "network" device and not care where the data is coming from?

I want a set top box for streaming content. MY content. NOT internet content, but stuff I store locally. My internet connection sucks...and I'm in canada where there the online content sucks. Why do all these boxes ignore the local, stored on MY hard drive, content?

Set up an HTPC, there's plenty of how-tos and boxes pre-made for it.

Show me how to build a HTPC for $60.

Quote:

Because there's wd, dlnk, xbox and appletv? Or an actual computer? Am I missing something?

I want a set top box for streaming content. MY content. NOT internet content, but stuff I store locally. My internet connection sucks...and I'm in canada where there the online content sucks. Why do all these boxes ignore the local, stored on MY hard drive, content?

Oh, I CAN answer your question then. No one builds what you want because there's very little money in piracy. ARRRRRible profit margins, matey![/quote]

Does roku get kickbacks from the streaming sites? The ones that:a) require a better internet connection than I can buy, and b) are not available to Canadian subscribers.

Also, when I have to pay for data transfer with limits, I surely don't want a streaming solution. It is potentially cheaper for me to buy a used, discount DVD/blu-ray than to actually stream that data.

As to the piracy, my storage unit of DVDs and CD that I have all ripped to my server tends to disprove that. Media is cheap, being able to watch/listen to it is difficult.

bflat wrote:dsleif wrote:bflat wrote:I want a set top box for streaming content. MY content. NOT internet content, but stuff I store locally. My internet connection sucks...and I'm in canada where there the online content sucks. Why do all these boxes ignore the local, stored on MY hard drive, content?

Oh, I CAN answer your question then. No one builds what you want because there's very little money in piracy. ARRRRRible profit margins, matey!

There are other uses besides pirated videos... what about recorded TV shows from OTA broadcasts?

I feel for his dilemma actually. We just got rid of cable. I'm in the middle of figuring out what I want to do for the three TVs and four PCs in the house. I'm thinking about getting a network tuner, recording the OTA broadcasts to a PC. The ultimate solution would be if one of these Roku devices would play my recorded programs, somewhat like a DVR. That way I don't have to build an HTPC attached to each TV. The simplicity of these Roku devices is very appealing... if it could just go that one. more. little. step...

I believe you can (without hacking) install Plex or XBMC on a Roku. That should take care of any "streaming from shared folders/NAS/etc" needs.

For whatever reason, I've found that my Apple TV streaming from iTunes running on a PC works a lot better than XBMC streaming from a NAS. XBMC tends to stutter a lot more. YMMV. Also, the XBMC-type solution requires that your media be scanned and a "library" be built up on the Roku; the "hook into a library" solution means that the living room device doesn't have to scan a directory for changes or build up a library so that you can sort by metadata, browse artwork etc.

Got one of these a few months ago, and I'm pretty impressed. It's one of those "it just works" pieces of electronics. Lots of channels in addition to your standard Netflix and Amazon, etc. By the way, if you have Amazon Prime, the Roku Amazon channel will let you watch the Free Prime on Demand movies.

The one big advantage I see of this over an AppleTV (which I also looked at) is the component output. AppleTV is HDMI only which limits what TV's you can use it on. And FYI for those who don't know, you canNOT route HDMI through a receiver and have component coming out the other end (apparently licensing issues). The Apple Store employees won't give you a straight answer if you ask them... would have saved me several hours if they had.

I believe you can (without hacking) install Plex or XBMC on a Roku. That should take care of any "streaming from shared folders/NAS/etc" needs.

For whatever reason, I've found that my Apple TV streaming from iTunes running on a PC works a lot better than XBMC streaming from a NAS. XBMC tends to stutter a lot more. YMMV. Also, the XBMC-type solution requires that your media be scanned and a "library" be built up on the Roku; the "hook into a library" solution means that the living room device doesn't have to scan a directory for changes or build up a library so that you can sort by metadata, browse artwork etc.

XBMC on a ROKU!!! that is perfect, I didn't know that was possible. I have some googling to do...maybe this is a device for me.

I already have XBMC on my ubuntu system, it would be great to "extend" that interface to the other TV's in my house.

Regarding local video. I believe there are 3rd-party "channels" that allow streaming from (for example) mythtv's backend. (no personal experience with roku, but I've search a lot for info ... still waiting until my next paycheck to get one)

Gods, that's cheap. And purrty. For the price, it can't be beat. I would, however, pay another $100 to be able to stream my own content (not on iTunes.. anymore), record OTA TV, and surf the web (I think Roku does that already..).

It's too bad the next best price to get all the features I need want is ~$300. It doesn't seem like the extra $200 is justified, but apparently so..

Edit: You can get XBMC on Roku, eh? Well, that at least opens up possibilities for second and third rooms.

Say what you will about the WD Live TV interface, but for those of you who want to stream from your own DLNA server it's pretty damn great -- we've had one for a couple of months, and although there are some limitations, I have not yet thrown any commonly found codec/container combination at it that it won't play via UPNP. This is significant, as nearly every other device I looked at was going to force me to do transcoding regularly -- I know on the fly is possible from some servers, but I just didn't want to fool around with that.

I sometimes sigh a little bit about all those Roku channels, but not having experienced them I don't know how well they actually work or how much I'm actually missing. (Not saying they aren't any good, just that I haven't seen them to envy them...)

Now there was supposed to be a Plex channel being worked on around about the time that they released Plex media server for other platforms recently - dunno how well that worked out. But, having also set up a Plex server (to feed my wife's iPad -- in this case I believe OTF transcoding is occurring) on the same box I'm serving content from to the WD with UPNP, I can say that Plex is pretty easy to set up and has a very sweet interface. If the Plex channel actually works well on Roku, then that's what my next set top box will be. (Eventually going to need more of them if I'm going to wean my family off of teh cable.)

I just realized - this could really steal thunder from The Big Three console makers. Some company to sell an HDTV that can PLAY GAMES ITSELF. It would just need to ship with a simple controller. Totally possible now - I never considered it. Maybe some TV's already do this. Of course the games would be limited to iPad/smartphone type games without the high end CPU/GPU in consoles. Sony should be jumping on this - like with the Sony Ericson playstation phone and playstation suite, they should bring playstation suite to their TVs.

Most DVD players, even TVs themselves stream all or most of this content, and hooking a laptop to a cable is not that hard. If you have ATV2 and any iOS device, you can equally stream everything Roku can and more, and can play many of the games on iOS right on your TV without the box needing to support that itself.

Skipping out on the content I can stream to the box simple is not worth saving a few bucks. ATV3 is coming very soon, and I'm seriously considdering getting one. We also expect an SDK that will essentially turn any iOPS device into a remote and one-click recompile for any games to work on the TV (that don't explicitly require touch). btw, angry birds without touch, sucks....

Some company to sell an HDTV that can PLAY GAMES ITSELF. It would just need to ship with a simple controller. Totally possible now - I never considered it. Maybe some TV's already do this.

TVs already include lots of crap like this. There are two main problems. One, consumer electronics companies are shit at software, so anything included in your TV will be half-assed at best. Two, people keep TVs a lot longer than than they do a box like this. Streaming and video are advancing too fast for something built into a TV to be relevant for more than a year or so.

Just to correct something written in the article above, Chris Foresman wrote:

"Roku also offers a wider variety of content. Apple TV can stream content from iTunes, Netflix, and YouTube. Roku has, among its 300 channels, Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand, Hulu Plus, Crackle, YouTube, and more. It also streams music from Pandora, Last.fm, Rdio, and others, and you can buy subscriptions for NBA, NHL, and UFC sports coverage."

Apple TV also supports live streaming sports coverage including NBA and MLB.TV content. I subscribe to MLB.TV and access my subscription solely via the ATV2 - It's a very simple interface.

Having said all that, the Roku 2 also looks like a very interesting piece of kit.

I want a set top box for streaming content. MY content. NOT internet content, but stuff I store locally. My internet connection sucks...and I'm in canada where there the online content sucks. Why do all these boxes ignore the local, stored on MY hard drive, content?

I have one.. my Samsung Galaxy S2 does all that via DNLA. For the sake of a £20 cable to connect it to my TV via HDMI it will stream virtually all my content! In fact - a lot of new TVs, Blu-Ray players, PVRs etc have DNLA technology built into them and can do the same!

I bought a Roku player two years ago, and it's honestly the single best tech purchase I've ever made, if I compare the purchase price with the amount of use and enjoyment I've gotten out of it. I mostly use Netflix and Hulu Plus, but some of the other channels are very good, too. And if you're an Amazon Prime customer, you can get a fair amount of free streaming through the Amazon channel. Plus the box is so small I can bring it to my girlfriend's house so we can watch a movie there.

The great value of Roku isn't just in the simple, high-quality hardware and software, though. It's in the fact that Roku isn't a content provider.

That means they have an interest in getting as many different content providers to work with them as possible; they're not going to restrict options because a particular provider is competing with their own store (for example, AppleTV will probably never support Amazon Video on Demand).

My only complaint is that it obviously can't stream iTunes videos. So my solution is to avoid buying any. But there are some shows like Doctor Who that I do end up buying on iTunes, and that's annoying. But for everything but DVDs and Doctor Who, I use the Roku player.

I believe you can (without hacking) install Plex or XBMC on a Roku. That should take care of any "streaming from shared folders/NAS/etc" needs.

For whatever reason, I've found that my Apple TV streaming from iTunes running on a PC works a lot better than XBMC streaming from a NAS. XBMC tends to stutter a lot more. YMMV. Also, the XBMC-type solution requires that your media be scanned and a "library" be built up on the Roku; the "hook into a library" solution means that the living room device doesn't have to scan a directory for changes or build up a library so that you can sort by metadata, browse artwork etc.

I'm pretty damn sure that you can't install XBMC on a Roku box... If someone has other information, linky please!

Got one of these a few months ago, and I'm pretty impressed. It's one of those "it just works" pieces of electronics.

Counter to that, mine didn't "just work". It refused to talk to my wireless router no matter what I did. A whole evening of frustration. [aside: I tried the online live chat with their tech support and was pretty impressed that they didn't waste my time with a lot of scripted nonsense - they didn't solve the problem because I lost them after I reset my router and I couldn't be bothered trying to reconnect with them]. Next day I went out and bought a new router and it worked first time!

Loved Roku ever since, but if you have an elderly router, it can be a PITA. And entering a 64 character WPA passphrase with the remote is not fun, especially when you end up doing it multiple times.

Does anyone know if Roku will ever play nicely with AirPlay/iPads/etc? The one reason I'm looking at getting an appletv is to be able to stream music to my stereo and control the stream with my iPad instead of going over to the tv. If I could do that with AirPlay, or even an app, I'd get one of these in a heartbeat.